Semi-Powered Infiltration Armor GEN2
Semi Powered Infiltration Armor Generation 2 was an armor system created to replace the aging SPI Mark II. It was used by many ONI operatives post war for a brief period. Design and Testing Though it was originally designated SPI Mark III, development was shut down due to the fact it would take to long and cost to much to have enough sets of the armor produced in time for them to be used by Gamma Company. When the war was over, Navy Special Warfare decided to revisit the concept, as such, the project re-opened and was now designated SPI GEN2. The suit was tested for all of 2553 and some of 2554. The suits shielding system constantly gave the engineers at NavSpecWar trouble, as did the environmental control suite. Seeing as the SPI GEN2 was far leaner and lighter than its predecessors, integrating things that the Mk I and II lacked in addition to upgrading older functions was rather difficult to do while maintaining the suits design. Mark I Field Use SPI GEN 2 was first fielded by ONI operatives in Operation: DROP THE HAMMER , where they used the suit to infiltrate a Covenant remnant base and destroy the jamming field and allowing the base to be targeted and destroyed by an orbiting UNSC Battle Group. All operatives survived without detection but several complaints were made, largely about the environmental control suite malfunctioning, and even more importantly the shields shorting out. The flaws in the system were quickly repaired by the design crew. Mark II Field Use and Project Shutdown After fixing the environmental and shield issue, the second variation of the armor was shipped out. Due to the growing popularity of MJOLNIR GEN2 variants such as 'Wetwork' and 'Stalker' among ONI's augmented operatives, SPI GEN2 was rarely fielded. By 2556 the final suit of SPI GEN2 was retired when it's user was relieved of ONI duty after Operation: KEEP AWAY and was assigned to a fireteam aboard the UNSC Infinity. After this the project was shut down after a short, but successful run. Pros and Cons •Pro: SPI GEN2 had a shielding system unlike previous, non-modified variants •Pro: Unlike previous variants included an environmental control suite •Pro: Despite having armor three times as durable as previous variants it was three times lighter •Pro: Now uses a more effective active camouflage module with an near indefinite usage time instead of photo-reactive panels •Pro: HUD was upgraded to match MJOLNIR GEN2, also included VISR and thermal imaging •Con: The armor's shielding had a tendency to short out if shield was online for longer than an hour, this require operatives to shut down shielding whenever possible to reserve the protection for when it was needed, this resulted in the deaths of several operatives. •Con: In the Mark I variant the environmental control suite constantly would malfunction. •Con: Overall it was inferior to MJOLNIR GEN2 armors Conflict Usage •Operation: DROP THE HAMMER •Operation: KEEP AWAY • Miscellaneous ONI operations